ABSTRACT
Many pieces of legislation in force across Europe are derived from European Directives. The procedure for legislation within the EU involves three institutions: the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission. The "codecision" procedure for developing European legislation entails the Commission drafting the legislation for acceptance by both the Parliament and the Council. Directives are enforced at a domestic level. There is no central European inspectorate. Although all member states must implement adopted Directives and provide reports to the Commission regarding practical implementation, the resources available to enforce compliance vary across the EU. The machinery safety directive in itself should provide some protection for workers operating machines that have been bought within Europe since its enforcement in its original form on January 1, 1993. An alternative to making measurements of hand-arm or whole-body vibration is to estimate the exposure using the manufacturer's information regarding the vibration emission.
